Gov. Bill Haslam appointed three people to the new State Fair and Exhibition Board on Thursday, putting flesh on the bones of a controversial body that will oversee the Tennessee State Fair three years after Metro government decided to stop running the annual event.

The General Assembly approved legislation this year authorizing the state agriculture commissioner to create a new state commission to oversee the fair, which has been held at Metro’s 117-acre fairgrounds since 1906.

The plan was criticized by Metro’s fair board and Metro Council members, who voted unanimously – but futilely – to ask the governor to veto it. Both groups said they were concerned that the new board’s creation could eventually cause the fair to move out of Nashville and hurt the fairgrounds, which the city continues to own along with the legal rights to the fair’s name.

But other supporters of the fair said it needed more stable guidance after Metro began contracting with other groups to put it on each year.